JuneauAvalancheFieldMapsSAAC04

JUNEAU URBAN AVALANCHE ADVISORY

The best current summary of the status of avalanche programs in Juneau is the web-edited 7.1MB QuickTime movie version of the presentation we prepared recently for the International Conference on Snow Avalanche Mitigation in Iceland and presented at a colloquium at the SLF Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research in Davos, Switzerland.
There were some very useful exchanges of information and techniques during our trip to Europe and it opened some exciting new possibilities for international collaboration toward solving our urban avalanche problem.
The Juneau urban advisory program demonstration program we did last year was the only urban avalanche forecast in North America. It was a unique and pioneering nontechnical avalanche advisory geared to a general audience of urban residents.
Unfortunately, the City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) Assembly was not willing to fully fund the program itself and the federal and state governments have failed to chip in their shares, so there is no core operational funding to pay staff to continue the program.
After twelve years of hard work on avalanche issues in our region, we were not willing to give up easily when the Assembly fell short, so in the fall we submitted a proposal that doubled the CBJ on-budget money with funds we lined up, and tripled it when all the associated off-budget in-kind partnerships and donations were tallied in.
That proposal would have enabled us to operate through the first half of the forecast season, but it depended on CBJ commitments to begin early enough in the season to meet the professional standard of care and to come through with funding for the remainder of the season using state and federal or CBJ money.
We put in five weeks of unpaid fulltime work in the summer and fall to help the CBJ raise state and federal funds. We met with Governor Palin's budget people and our federal Congressional delegation's Juneau staff, provided detailed information on our website, and developed and presented our statewide avalanche program budget presentation (0.3 MB PDF download).
Ultimately the CBJ Assembly decided not to fund the program. We believe this is the wrong decision but that is what they have chosen.

Juneau Urban Avalanche Maps

This is an overview of the downtown Juneau area avalanche paths, complete with the standard database codes for each path. We also have a larger scale version (542 KB), twice this size.

This map details the runout zone of the Behrends Avenue avalanche path. The area marked A is the severe hazard zone. The area marked B is the special engineering zone. Specially engineering residential structures for avalanche impact is a not really a solution, as there is no way to engineer the child playing in the yard, the woman plowing the street, or the person delivering the mail. None of the existing structures are engineered, the requirement would only apply to new ones.

Real solutions are straightforward. In the short term, we need an avalanche forecasting program, so people can make an informed choice on what times to live or work in avalanche zones and when to stay out. We need to keep up our avalanche response plan up to date and be sure our emergency teams are well-trained and equipped.

In the long term, the only workable solution is a voluntary buyout. Once the houses are gone, earthen and gabion berms can be built and the runout terraced to provide additional protection to the highways, harbor, and adjacent structures like the high school.

Until the houses are gone, no defense structures or warning systems are practical. Numerous studies over the years have all concluded that starting zone support structures would cost more than all the affected property is worth, and create adverse impacts on soil stability and scenery. Earthen mounds in the runout could slow slides but are not really very effective and they also adversely impact soil stability. Motion detection based warning systems sound appealing, but they could not give anywhere near enough lead time for escape, and they are prone to numerous false alarms and other technical difficulties.

This photomap details the runout zone of the White Subdivision paths. The solutions here are basically the same as those for the Behrends Avenue path, except that the trees here should be carefully preserved to help retard slides. If you need more detail, we have a version twice this size.

This photo from False Mt. Troy on Douglas Island shows the urban avalanche paths on the Gastineau Channel side of Mt. Juneau.